How we make money

Using CheapestAlternative is free. Our commercial customers are software vendors — and one rule protects you from that.

The rule

Commercial relationships never improve a product's capability match or organic ranking. Vendors cannot pay to be the cheapest. They can only become cheaper — by genuinely lowering the price you pay.

Where revenue comes from

• Affiliate and referral links. Some outbound links pay us a commission if you sign up. This never affects whether a product qualifies or how it ranks.
• Exclusive discounts. Vendors may offer our users a discount. A discount can change a ranking — because your effective price genuinely drops.
• Sponsored visibility. Clearly labelled, only ever shown when relevant to what you are looking for, and never mixed into organic results.
• Qualified introductions. With your explicit consent, we may introduce you to a vendor that matches your requirements.

What that means in practice

If a product tops a comparison, it is because the data says it covers what is compared at a lower effective price — whether or not we have any commercial relationship with the vendor. Products we earn nothing from rank exactly the same way.

See also our affiliate disclosure and methodology.